Buffalo Pound Lake

Buffalo Pound Lake
Buffalo Pound Lake
Buffalo Pound Lake
Location	Saskatchewan
Coordinates	50°39′00″N 105°30′50″W / 50.65000°N 105.51389°W / 50.65000; -105.51389Coordinates: 50°39′00″N 105°30′50″W / 50.65000°N 105.51389°W / 50.65000; -105.51389
Lake type	Prairie lake
Primary inflows	Qu'Appelle River
Primary outflows	Qu'Appelle River
Catchment area	3,310 km2 (1,280 sq mi)
Basin countries	Canada
First flooded	1939 (1939)
Max. length	35 km (22 mi)
Max. width	2 km (1.2 mi)
Surface area	29.5 km2 (11.4 sq mi)
Average depth	3 m (9.8 ft)
Max. depth	5.6 m (18 ft)
Water volume	0.0898 km3 (0.0215 cu mi)
Residence time	1.5 years
Shore length1	72.5 km (45.0 mi)
Surface elevation	509.47 m (1,671.5 ft) above sea level
Islands	none
Settlements	none
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Buffalo Pound Lake^[1] is a eutrophic prairie lake in Saskatchewan, Canada, formed from glaciation about 10,000 years ago, on the Qu'Appelle River approximately 28 km north of Moose Jaw and 11 km north-east of Tuxford. The lake gets its name from the method used by First Nations people to capture the bison using the natural topography as corrals or buffalo pounds. Bison once numbered more than 60 million on the prairies, by 1900 they were all but extinct. Bison were reintroduced into the area in 1972.^[2]

Highway 2 crossing Buffalo Pound Lake

The lake provides drinking water for the cities of Regina, Moose Jaw, and the Mosaic Company potash mine at Belle Plaine, approximately 25% of the province's population. It is also used for recreational purposes such as camping, boating, and fishing and is home to a host of fish species including walleye, sauger, yellow perch, northern pike, cisco, mooneye, lake whitefish, white sucker, channel catfish, burbot, bigmouth buffalo, and common carp.^[3] Buffalo Pound Provincial Park^[4] is located on the southern part of the lake and can be accessed by Highway 202 and Highway 301. Log cabins can be rented or bought along the shores of the lake.

Highway 2 crosses by causeway on the lake.

The Moose Jaw River joins the Qu'Appelle River 5 km east of the dam in the Nicolle Flats Marsh.

Buffalo Pound Dam[]

The Qu'Appelle River was dammed by the Buffalo Pound Dam in 1939 to control fluctuating water levels. The dam is an embankment dam approximately 1,400 metres long.

A fish ladder installed in 1999-2000 allows fish to migrate in and out of the lake and new gates were installed to create a better water supply downstream. The height of the dam was also raised one metre. The problem with fluctuating water levels wasn't solved all together until the construction of the Qu'Appelle River Dam and Gardiner Dam that created Lake Diefenbaker 100 km upstream in 1967. As a result, water flow in the Qu'Appelle River now remains relatively constant. This, however, has flushed the lake out and allowed excessive algae growth due to the cleaner water which reduced the popularity of swimming and boating during the summer months, raised the cost of water treatment, and the lake still remains eutrophic, due to low oxygen levels and highly nutritious soil on the lake's bottom.^[5][6]

NCC's Buffalo Pound[]

Buffalo Pound is a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property located on the northern shore of Buffalo Pound Lake. In 2020, the NCC bought the land for $3.38-million. About 30%, or $987,000, was contributed by K+S Potash Canada offset grassland destroyed in Saskatchewan by mine construction. The rest of the money came from the Canadian and Saskatchewan governments and hundreds of private donors. The land was purchased from local cattle ranchers and cattle will continue to graze the land.^[7]

The total land area of the park is 866 hectares (2,140 acres) with 7 kilometres of shoreline along the lake. It consists mostly of native grasslands and provides habitat to a variety of wildlife, including animals on Canada's Species at Risk Act, such as the American badger, Baird’s sparrow, bobolink, northern leopard frog, and Sprague’s pipit.^[8]

See also[]

• Saskatchewan Water Security Agency
• Dams and reservoirs in Saskatchewan
• List of lakes of Saskatchewan
• List of protected areas of Saskatchewan
• Fishing Lakes

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to Buffalo Pound Lake at Wikimedia Commons

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